We Are the Responsible Ones — So What Shall We Do?

Who are the heroes? Who are the eminent? Who are the famous who deserve immortality and honor for the great services they have rendered their homelands? Who are the loyal citizens? Are they the great commanders and warriors? Or the discoverers and inventors? Or the wealthy financiers? These are not the only loyal citizens. Alongside the names of Pasteur, Caesar, Florence Nightingale, Madame Curie, and other great figures, we can set the names of those workingmen and workingwomen who save lives when a fire breaks out or a river floods; and that little boy who put his finger in the hole and saved his country from drowning; and the doctors who serve suffering humanity; and the nurses, and the teachers, men and women, who rear the rising generation in a true national upbringing; and the workers of the Red Cross and Red Crescent institutions; and the unknown citizen who respects the law, keeps order, and holds himself above whatever offends a living conscience and injures the country's good name; and others, and others still...

All these are loyal citizens, and each one of you can be a citizen who serves her homeland. That is no longer reserved to those who fight on the battlefields, or raise flags, or register some great invention; nor does the country need a war for everyone to do his duty. Duties in peace are no less important than in war, and the field of service lies wide open before woman in all her works.

Until recently we knew but little of our duties as citizens, and we did not feel we had a homeland so long as the foreigner ruled us in it. But now the country is ours and its inhabitants are of us.

The President is one of us, the ministers are of us, the officials are of us, and the merchants, the workers, the vendors, the automobile drivers, the street sweepers, and the beggars... The cities are our cities, the dirty streets are our streets, and this filth was thrown into the street by Lebanese — so we are responsible for it.

This is our country: are we proud of it? Are we proud of its people? For it is not enough to boast of the beauty of Lebanon, its mountains, its snows, and the intelligence of its sons. And can we, if we are frank with ourselves, say that we are proud of the morals of the people of Lebanon? Patriotism and enthusiasm must not blind our eyes; true patriotism uncovers the faults to the sincere observer, so that he sees everything as it is. Then, and only then — when we see the facts undistorted — is there born in us a strength and a desire for reform. I say in us — that is, in you and in every woman, man, and youth. You, my lady readers, are not politicians steering the helm of the country; yet each one of you plays her part in the building of our homeland. You must first prepare a program in your heads, be convinced of its necessity and usefulness, and then carry it out; for every reform that has been carried out and done good ripened first in the brain of the reformer, who was convinced of its necessity. And before drawing up the program we must search and scrutinize, to know where our weakness lies.

Walk in the streets and observe everything... Are you content that there should be beggars in them? Are you silent about the filth along their sides, the fruit peels on their sidewalks, and the dirty water that wets them from the balconies of the houses? Does it please you to listen to foul talk, insults, and abuse? Visit the schools and inquire whether opportunities there are equal for all. Read the newspapers and you will learn a great deal about thefts and crime. Are you silent about all this?

Have we a sufficient number of free hospitals and dispensaries? Does each of us pay the taxes he owes, so that the government may carry out its projects? Are the taxes spent in the ways in which they ought to be spent? Do you permit the ticket collector on the tramway to steal before your very eyes and ears? Do you take a hand in it by giving him the ticket before you get off? Have you demanded of the government the public amenities — gardens for the children and playing fields for the young men and young women?

Our little ones are in the alleys — what have we done? Our sick poor cannot pay the doctor's fee — what have we done? Each one of you can do something. We are all Lebanese women, and this is our homeland, whose standing will rise only so far as its people raise it. Begin working now. Grieving and lamenting the sorry state of things is of no use. We must feel the responsibility, and we must strengthen public opinion; for public opinion is the only ruler whom the great fear before the small. It is the overseer of rulers and presidents. It is the claimant of every reform. If we have a firm and respected public opinion, bribery will diminish, maladministration will be set right, negligence will cease, favoritism and string-pulling will vanish, and justice will prevail. You can strengthen public opinion by discussions and articles, in classrooms, in offices, and in workshops.

Our country is very dear. However much we may toil for its reform and its betterment, we shall have done only a part of what we owe.